A Little Light

OK so the Immigration Grand Bargain has gone down in the Senate. I wouldn't characterize this as "good" but it is a better outcome than passing a very bad bill. The real story isn't really immigration though, it's the way the Senate reacted to a clear and overwhelming response from all parts of the electorate; people universally didn't like the bill and, eventually, it was voted down in the Senate.

Unfortunately along the way many Senators were exposed as being entirely craven and willfully ignorant of both sensible policy and the will of the people. While I respect those Senators who truly want to "solve" immigration issues and understand compromise is necessary, the fact is that a comprehensive bill was never desired by the American people. And instead of building public support and proposing legislation that reflects that support, the Senate instead attempted to disregard the people completely. Regardless of the issue being debated, that is a dishonorable way of doing business.

Along the way our Ohio Senators were unimpressive, to say the least, although both thankfully voted against the bill. Sherrod Brown hemmed and hawed and hedged, then taking the contradictory position of saying he was against it but would vote for it. George Voinovich said almost nothing, declining to disclose his own position while voting for the bill until today when he joined in against it. Neither made clear his views on the subject. It's reasonable that both their votes were available if the political calculus worked out differently. And it's reasonable to conclude they both correctly concluded that the overwhelming opposition made a vote for the bill too damaging. It could be far worse, but I don't know how anyone who cares could now be enthusiastic about either of these Senators.

Ultimately, this entire exercise has been enormously damaging. We had a weak president before; now we have an entirely incapacitated president. There's a war going on (whether people like it or not) and no one is in charge. A newly elected Democratic majority in Congress has failed to accomplish anything yet. The Republican party is split over immigration and the Democratic party will be soon enough. And both sides are now claiming that since a comprehensive bill has failed, now nothing can be done to improve immigration policy. That may be true politically, but that's because our leaders are not actually leading. And that is concerning.

None of this has much to do with Dennis or his hapless run for the Presidency. It might have been interesting to see how Kucinich would have voted on such legislation though.